Current Cyclocross World Champion Mathieu van der Poel injured his hip and knee during a crash in the second stage of the Tour de l’Avenir. MvdP returned to his bike after the crash and finished the stage three minutes and eight seconds behind the leader, dropping him from fifth to 107th. A trip to the hospital following the stage revealed no broken bones. A knee that required stitches and a bruised thigh seemed to be the extent of the injuries. 
After leaving the hospital, he said he’d be at the start for stage 3.
Despite the initial belief that the injury was not a big deal, MvdP continued to have pain in his knee and has now left the race to return home. On Twitter, today, he said he had an examination scheduled for the morning and, “I hope it isn’t too bad right before the cx season starts!” 
MvdP is scheduled to start his 2015-2016 season September 16 at the CrossVegas World Cup race.
[UPDATE (9.3.2015): MvdP underwent minor surgery on his knee, yesterday. The wound was reopened, cleaned and restitched. As a result, he will not resume training until next Tuesday. On his Twitter account MvdP called it a setback. There is no indication that this will interfere with his plan to be on the starting line at CrossVegas for World Cup #1.]
[UPDATE: MvdP visited the hospital Friday for further examination of his injuries. He has a bruised bone that will keep him off the bike for a week but no other damage. He said on his team’s website that it’s not ideal this close to ‘cross season, but that it will not affect his schedule. He confirmed that his participation at CrossVegas is not in danger.]
In other van der Poel news, Poppa Adrie has his hands full gluing tubulars for Mathieu and David. “One pair done, 17 to go.” Cross is Dad.
Hi Bill, good article. you got the gist of Poppa’s Tweet but a more accurate translation might be “1 pair done, 17 to go”
I like your site update. Maybe you could add the submittal date to top of your posts so we know when you posted them? Seems to be a typical missed item for news posts all over the web… Not sure why.
I’ve been following your site for 4 years now. Please keep it up! Love those technique videos. Encouraged me to ride my first amateur race season last year in Wisconsin!
Cheers!